Sabotaged
by Ai No Senshi
Summary: Someone is trying to kill Serena. First they took her brooch and then they took her wand. Now what is she supposed to do? And who's sabotaging her? No! It couldn't be! Epilogue added. Serena gets her revenge.
1. Sabotage

Death is like a cold shadow standing over its victims, watching quietly, greedily. One always knows when death comes near. It is accompanied by fear and an ache in the abdomen, a foreboding feeling that one cannot escape.

As the monster drew closer, its breath acrid, its eyes on fire, Serena could feel death reach out for her. She had never lost a fight, but now she knew how it felt to lose. She could see the victory reflected back in the red hot eyes of the creature. She would have run, but her legs felt as if they were made of stone. She was paralyzed by the cold shadow which had encircled her.

The monster gripped her in its fist, ready to crush her. She could not breathe.

Fire shot through the arm that held her, forcing the monster to loose its grip on her abdomen and scream in the sudden stinging pain.

"Run, Serena!" Sailor Mars yelled, but Serena once again found that she could not move, even though death had run to the monster's side. There was something very wrong with her, with the world. Everything seemed to twist and shake. The air seemed to be charged with change.

A masked man ran past her, sweeping her up into his arms. He carried her to safety, away from the grasp of the monster.

"Are you okay, Serena?" Tuxedo Mask asked her. His face looked worried, but even his expression seemed wrong to her.

"I'm fine," she said, though she felt as if she were sliding quickly off the side of a cliff. "Someone took my brooch."

"How do you know?" he asked, eyes wide in shock, yet unbelieving.

"Because it's not in my bag," she said calmly, detached from the heavy reality of her accusation.

"Maybe you dropped it."

"No!" Serena insisted. "I didn't drop it. Someone took it." She could almost see it in her mind, feel the hand reaching into her bag and removing her most precious possession. Her vision was unfortunately imperfect.

Serena heard the monster squeal once more, then the world became quiet. It had been destroyed without her help. The Sailor Scouts came to her side.

"Why didn't you transform, Serena?" Amy asked. She and the other scouts were panting from the effort of destroying the creature.

"My brooch was stolen," she said. She watched the reactions of her friends, and each seemed surprised. She turned her back to them, and headed home before any of them could reply to her news. She knew their answers anyway, and she did not want to be told that she was wrong.

When she arrived home, she found her brooch sitting on her desk as if it had been there all along. She picked it up as if it were a foreign object, as if it had been the one to betray her.

She remembered placing the brooch in her top drawer the night before. She put it behind her spare uniform, where it could not easily be seen. She opened the drawer to find her spare uniform pushed to the front. She had taken it out this morning in her usual rush, and had wrinkled her uniform in the process.

She knew that she had placed it in her bag, yet it appeared now on her desk.

Someone_ had_ taken it. She was right; she was being sabotaged.

The next day Serena made sure that she had her brooch on her uniform instead of in her bag. She was quiet and reserved. She watched all of her friends intently, picking apart their every movement and word. Only someone who knew of her identity would have taken that brooch, one of her closest friends.

When another monster came that day she transformed easily, but something still felt wrong to her. Her world was off balance, yet no one else noticed. She reached for her wand and found only the cold hand of death to hold. She had left the crescent wand in her bag, unable to learn from yesterday's mistake, and once again someone had robbed her of a precious possession.

She tried to fight against death this time, and reached up for her tiara though she had not thrown it for some time. She aimed small, but missed by a large amount. Her tiara clattered to the ground, useless. As the monster charged, she felt the world ripple. A hand snaked around her wrist and pulled her away as the rest of the Scouts combined attacks to defeat the monster.

"Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask exclaimed, holding her to his chest. "I almost lost you again. Why didn't you attack?"

Serena felt very awkward in his arms. She pulled away from him, grimacing.

"Someonetook my wand."

The Scouts hurried to their leader's side. "What happened?" Lita asked.

"She says that someone stole her wand," Darien explained, and by the tone in his voice Serena could tell the he did not believe her.

"Are you sure?" Amy asked. "It seems that you've been sort of forgetful lately, Serena."

Serena looked up at her friends. They were worried, unsure. "I am sure," she said coldly, "that I had my wand this morning. I am not sure of my friends."

She came home to find her wand on her desk, just as the brooch had been. Her saboteurs were not creative.

In the following days, Serena strapped her want to her leg and kept her brooch securely on her chest. She wore longer, baggy skirts to cover up the wand, and an untrusting expression to cover up her fear. A couple of fights passed without incident, and her friends always looked more and more sure that Serena was blaming her forgetfulness on an enemy that did not exist. Serena even began to believe that she had only imagined the betrayal. It was all just a mistake.

A week later, they were fighting again and the battle was going smoothly. Serena was dodging a dart of power from the latest creature when she felt something in the air change. Her senses screamed in a panic, but Serena could not figure out why. She was fine; she had her wand at the ready. An arm circled her waist and lifted her into the air.

Tuxedo Mask was swinging down between buildings, and had scooped Serena up.

She looked up at his face, though he would not look at her.

"Darien? What are you doing? I was fine,' she said.

Darien's arm loosened. She slipped from his grasp as he swung onto the roof of the next building. Her eyes became wide and she scrambled for his arms, his ankles, anything to grip onto. She could see now when he had hugged her and slipped his hand into her bag. He was as quick as a thief. She slipped away from the sky, unable to stop her fall. She met the pavement with a sickening thud, a sharp crack.

Pain stabbed up and down her torso, though she could not feel her legs.

"Serena!" came the screams. Her friends crowded around her in regular clothing, and pulled her brooch away so that she too was just another person. Lita and Mina gripped her hands and talked quietly to her though she could not hear the words. Amy checked her pulse. Raye was calling an ambulance, but did not look at her friend.

The fiery scout never once looked at Serena as she talked to the operator. Her dark eyes instead met the blue eyes of Darien, who also never looked at the woman he supposedly loved. Neither spoke a word, but it was clear to Serena that neither felt regret or worry. She could see in their faces pure relief and joy.

"No one would ever think it was them," she said, though her words did not leave her mouth. "They even fooled me."

Though death had followed her around for some time, she was never meant to die. She was meant to be brushed aside, out of the way, like a broken toy. No one would ever suspect her two closest friends to be her worst enemies. They'd gotten away with their plans.

They would live happily ever after.

Author's Note: A short, but dark story. It is a little stupid and a little unlikely, but there's nothing about Sailor Moon that isn't a little stupid and unlikely. Please review if you feel like it.

revised


	2. Revenge

Two years later, after hours and hours of physical therapy, Serena could walk steadily without the help of any person or anything. She kept her progress to herself, still untrusting of most people since the night of the most painful betrayal she'd ever experienced.

The world had continued without her, but just barely. The scouts only survived with the help of Sailors Neptune and Uranus, who had come earlier than expected. The two older scouts had become Serena's closest friends for their loyalty to the crown was obvious. They would kill for her, she knew. They were with her throughout her recovery, and helped her in numerous ways.

Serena had not spoken to any of her former friends, even the ones she as sure had no part in her injuries. She found it hard to forgive any of them, or look at their faces. The first time Darien had come to visit her, she screamed until a nurse came to remove him. She could not move to fight him, but she was not weaponless. He never returned. When Raye came, she was never alone, but Serena refused to see her or speak to her. She immediately would press the nurse call button ask for her visitors to be removed. Soon no one from her previous life came to see her except for her family.

The day Serena was fully released, Amara and Michelle came to pick her up. They went to the couple's flat.

"When will you return to the Scouts?" Michelle asked in her quiet way.

"I don't know," Serena said. "I don't want to see them again."

"You have a responsibility, you know," Amara said. "They need you."

"I know," Serena said. "I know."

"Have you tried to transform?" Michelle questioned.

"No," Serena said. She looked down at her brooch.

"Don't use that," Amara said. "You don't need it." She took the brooch away. "You know what your power feels like. Pull it over yourself like a cloak, like a shield."

Serena closed her eyes, felt the silvery glow, and commanded it forward. Amara had been right. For the first time in two years, Serena felt powerful and strong. Her uniform had changed because she had. Her tiara twisted gracefully across her forehead in swirls of gold and silver, then spread upwards as a crown. Her skirt was no longer pleated, and it hung loosely about her knees. Her sleeves slid tightly down her arms and looped around her middle finger. A golden belt encircled her hips, and her boots had also turned golden. The rest of her uniform was silver. When she looked in the mirror, she saw an elegant, mature woman, but at the same time she was a fearful sight. Her power was undeniable.

"This is who you are now," Michelle said, standing as Sailor Neptune at Serena's side. Sailor Uranus nodded from her other side.

"We will follow you wherever you go, and help you in any circumstance."

Serena nodded. "It's time that I face my past."

The three found the Scouts fighting a monster, as usual. Serena noticed how worn all of her past friends appeared. The monster was obviously winning this battle.

Serena drew power into her hand, for she now found a wand as equally useless as a brooch, then cleared the monster from existence in a single silver flash. For moments, no one moved, especially Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Mask. Sailor Moon walked into sight from the shadows, her new friends behind her. Silence accompanied her presence.

"Isn't anyone going to say anything?" she asked. "I'm walking. I've got a new look. I've got a new life. Doesn't anyone know how to speak?"

"Serenity," Amy said, for the name "Serena" did not seem right, "I am happy to see you return."

"I've missed you so much," Mina said. Serenity knew that each of them spoke truly, and that, though Lita was speechless, the scout from Jupiter was also relieved to have her leader back.

Raye and Darien, however, were green in the face.

"What about you, Darien?" Serenity asked. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

Darien couldn't even summon the hint of a smile.

"I've only seen you once or twice since the night you dropped me."

The still loyal scouts gasped, and knew their leader spoke truly when Darien made no attempt to deny her accusation.

"What about you, Raye? You were a part of my paralysis, weren't you?"

"Raye!" Mina gasped. "It's treason."

"It's evil," Lita said angrily.

"It's punishable by death," Amy said. The laws of the Moon Kingdom still applied to all of them.

"I'm not going to kill anyone since I was never meant to die," Serena said. "Nor will I put you through the excruciating physical pain."

"Please, Serenity," Darien said. "Forgive us for our acts, our mistakes. We thought it was the only way."

"Oh, Darien, I will forgive you. In fact, I've decided to give you both gifts. Raye, so that you may feel the powerlessness I felt when I could not control my own body, I am removing from you the burden of being a Sailor Scout."

Serenity placed her hand out with her palm open. Raye's body began to shake and glow. Her eyes grew wide in disbelief as a ball of flames flew into Serenity's hand, and was quickly crushed in Serenity's fist. Raye stood in normal clothing with the inability to summon fire or turn into a scout. She felt empty and cold without the familiar Martian magic in her, but the Queen's judgment ruled.

"And, Darien, so that you may never feel the pain I experienced, I am removing from you the ability to feel most physical sensations." A ball of silver light surrounded Darien, glowed brightly, then disappeared. Darien clenched his fists, then looked up at Raye, frightened.

"I can't feel it," he said, though his fingernails had cut his palms and soft trails of blood slid over his hands.

"Goodbye, dear friends, I will return when needed."

The Queen departed with a smile upon her face, and peace in her heart. The world seemed right to her once more.

Author's Note: Well here you go. You get what you deserve and I think Darien and Raye did. It's not the best thing I've written, but it is the most evil. Review if ya want.

revised


End file.
